We are still trucking along through hard modes, snagging a Maloriak kill last night. The fight in and of itself took us a little bit longer than I feel it should have – largely to spending the first two nights working on it with interrupt woes. Once that was shored up, we started doing much better.

A few things to note on the encounter – while there is a lot going on, I honestly can’t help but feel that the first 2/3 of the fight is all about interrupting the right shit at the right time. (This must be pretty hellish for Aussie guilds with high latency). We found that the best way to have your interupters deal with this is to get a mod that will let you white list/black list spells – ours favored a mod called Gnosis.

Of course, we are also pretty sure that our elemental shaman who ultimately took up the task of interrupting Arcane Storm now has a permanant twitch.

We also learned that it is, in fact, possible to get the kill 12 aberations achievement in heroic mode. Don’t ask!

I’m not 100% sure what our next heroic target will be, from the numbers it looks like many people have tackled Atramedes. We intend to peek at him tonight since he’s all we have left outside of Nef. I don’t know if he’ll end up being our next target – but what I do know is that going by the numbers it’s pretty much a toss up as to what people find “easier” :)

On Recruiting

We still have a few open spots that we’d like to fill…if you couldn’t tell from my post on Friday. If you think you might be interested you can find more information at www.monolithwow.com .

In addition to the ranged positions that are open – we think that we will again be looking for a Holy Paladin or a Resto Shaman to join the ranks. We have a very strong healing team that will keep you on your toes as a healer! However, we also want to make sure that if they need a night off we have enough healers to get the job done.

On Alts

I really haven’t been doing much with them, to be honest. Kitai is hovering at level 84, and I’m sure someday soon-ish she will make it to 85. I did an alt run on Dannie this weekend, after which I realized that I didn’t use my Guardian one time in the two and a half hours we raided. (Bad, bad paladin!). This run was actually pretty fun, very laid back and a nice change of pace – which was the goal of the run. Other than that, there really isn’t anything to update.

On The Great Haste Experiment

It’s still ongoing – but for those curious the results thus far have been positive. Not only that but I upgraged both my neck and my bracers this week (which required me to juggle some), which means that I was able to gain about 250 spirit. I will hopefully have time to put together a more detailed post sometime later in the week.

On Rift

Brade and I are checking it out and did play a little bit during the head start. I’ve been really worn thin in WoW lately, and a bit tired, so I welcomed taking a break from WoW for the weekend. Only…while playing Rift I didn’t really feel that I was taking that much of a break.

I mean, the characters look different (and I can have pink hair!), but the game play is…a lot like WoW. Yes, yes, I know the class system is different and more complicated and the story line is different. But largely, I didn’t really feel like I was doing much different. Which means that I really didn’t feel that I had taken much of a break from WoW. To the point that I was actually lamenting that I just wanted to get out of the computer chair and do something, anything, different.

Now, perhaps I’m just not far enough into the game yet to have a good feel for the differences between the two games or to fully appreciate what Rift has to offer; and maybe I am subconciously rejecting the idea of being tied to another MMO, I don’t know. However, for the time being I do intend to keep putzing around with it, at an extremely casual pace. But I have yet to decide if the game will have any longevity for me.

On Getting Out Of The Chair

Games

One of the things that I’m notoriously bad about is making snap decisions on purchasing console games and then never playing them and letting them sit (sometimes still in their wrapper!) never playing them. The problem really stems from just running out of time.

If I’m enjoying WoW – I’m really enjoying it and have a hard time pulling myself away. So once I’m done with all the guild management and raid stuff that needs to be done, I immerse myself in my alts. And I’m content to do so, which doesn’t leave a whole lot of free time for much of anything else.

Well, my malaise this weekend led me to decide that it’s time to add some variety to my gaming life. Not just because it’s a waste of money to purchase something and then never play it – but because some variety may help relieve some of my WoW stress. I know, I know you are probably wondering what game I opted to break up the tedium with. Well, fear not, I’ll tell you!

Epic Mickey.

Yes, Epic Mickey. So far I find that it’s a pretty innovative game. The game play isn’t overly complicated and the puzzles don’t immediately send me for a strategy guide to solve them. But the actual concept of the game is very cool and aside from a few camera angle issues, I find that I’m enjoying it quite a bit. It’s a nice change of pace for me and honestly it’s nice to just let everything else go from an hour or two while I paint my way through Disney. (I will neither confirm or deny that I have killed myself by thinning an area I was standing on causing me to fall to my death. Nope, won’t do it!).

Reading

I’ve also still been reading through the last few books of the JD Robb In Death series, I think I have about 3 left. Of course with her being the prolific writer that she is there will probably be another released before I get through these!

TV/Movies

I have finished watching the last season of The Closer on DvD – and I have to say the show is great. I can’t wait for the current season to release! I can identify a lot with Kyra Sedwick’s character, which may be why I find myself so fond of it.

Once we finished The Closer, we started watching Battlestar Galactica. We are still very early into season one, but so far I’m enjoying the series. Here’s hoping that it stays enjoyable!

That’s about all I’ve got! If you have any game, book or movie selections, I’d love to hear them! If not, well Happy Monday!

I agree with your assessment of Rift. I like to putz around in there. I went to a dungeon last night on my cleric. Interesting to see a different look. I like Rifting, too. I will be fun to do that a bit here and there.

I never did learn how to knit, but I can cross-sticth and crochet! Of course, I’ve not done any of that in years and years. Perhaps I should head to Michael’s this weekend and pick up some cross-stitching. Hrm….

Grats on Maloriak! Interrupts always do seem to be a rough one on those fights. We actually got the aberrations achievement in our alt run the other night due to our arcane storm interrupter (not his usual job in main raids) getting twitchy and kept interrupting the add casts rather than storms. If guildies asked after the achievement spam, it was all on purpose! >.>

Atramedes is probably a good choice to head to next. The fight’s been nerfed considerably (mainly due to it being impossible to do without glitching it / LoSing / terrain exploits before), so it’s essentially just normal mode strat but things hit a bit harder and there are adds to kill.

I would say that Battlestar Galactica (the new one) is the best scifi series of all time. *runs and hides from the Dr. Who fans* It always created an atmosphere that drew me in. The show really does just get better as it goes on. I’m going to stop before I have to go back and watch it again.

I see the nerf to the bloom as a PvP nerf. Honestly, with one or two rare exceptions, if I let my lifebloom bloom in PvE it was a mistake that I didn’t intend to make. The only time I can think of that I purposely let it bloom is if I can time it on the tank during Maloriak’s Black Phase. Outside of that, I keep it rolling.

The increased mana cost, however, is probably un-needed. Honestly, I see that nerf as a hit to the relative effectiveness of ToL. I will have to wait and see how it plays out, I suppose. But all in all, it looks to be a PvP nerf with PvE implications (what’s new?!?!).

*edit – I actually didn’t think about the blooms I let go off in ToL, which again seems that it’s going to nerf our “special” cooldown even more. Bleh.

Hrm – I’m not sure what Blake’s 7 is, but since two people have suggested it, I think I may have to investigate!

As I commented to Xeppe above, I don’t think that the “Bloom” nerf will have a huge effect on PvE – and I see it more as a PvP nerf. Granted it will effectively nerf ToL healing, which pretty much sucks, but outside of ToL I tend to roll my LB anyhow. The need for an increased mana cost is questionable in my opinion.

I do empathise with your interrupt shaman, but for odd reasons. One particularly bad PuG for heroic Blackrock Caverns left my poor Felhunter and I the only real interrupters for Corla.

It wasn’t very pretty.

I’ve been hearing a lot about Rift, and a lot about how it’s extremely similar to WoW. I’ve been tempted more than once to check it out, but I figure WoW has put enough on my plate (rep grinding, looking for a guild for raids, etc.) to keep me engaged without another MMO sapping my time as well.

Also, cropsy up there has a good recommendation. The Malazan Book of the Fallen series is a fantastic read, even if it does take a lot of reading to make heads or tails of what exactly is going on. The books tend to drop you in the middle of the world without a lot of initial context: it’s up to you to discover it for yourself. A good read, though.

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